Robots to fight people's battles in future - Foundation

Oct 21 2014

Interfax

Interfax

Remotely controlled robots will replace soldiers in combat in the future, Deputy General Director of the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects, Chairman of the Foundation's Scientific and Technological Board Vitaly Davydov told Interfax-AVN.

Remotely controlled robots will replace soldiers in combat in the future, Deputy General Director of the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects, Chairman of the Foundation's Scientific and Technological Board Vitaly Davydov told Interfax-AVN.

"It will be possible to use robots on the battlefield in the future when related problems are solved. An operator will control a whole platoon of highly autonomous robots. Robots will interact with one another, distribute targets and combine their weaponry," he said.

Humankind is advancing in quantum leaps towards a situation in which the physical presence of a person on the battlefield will no longer be necessary, he said.

"The armed confrontation philosophy is changing. In the past, human casualties were a factor proving the supremacy of one conflicting side over the other, but what consequences can we speak about when robots are destroyed? Probably just economic," he said.

In Davydov's opinion, the future causes of war may be less significant than they are now. "The psychological factor of hostilities is changing. You have to overstep certain moral boundaries to shoot a person but robotic warfare may significantly lower the threshold upon which hostilities start," he said.